A Friend Worth Having

A FRIEND WORTH HAVING

John 15:16

Suppose you could choose between two people to have dinner with one was warm, caring, genuinely interested in you, listens well, and is fun to be with, you want your friendship to last forever

The other is aloof, distant, self-absorbed, and demanding. The only time he calls is when he wants something. He is unpredictable and fickle. He has a lot of power and wealth but if it were not for that power he probably would not have any friends.

Who would you chose?

Which one is most like God in your mind?

Unfortunately, most people have the second view of God.... a distorted view.

To them God is uncaring, distant, very powerful but can't be counted on, and the only real reason to have friendship with Him is for the occasional answers to prayer.

But God is really like the first person... He is warm, caring, genuinely interested in you, listens well, and is fun to be with.

The truth is, and what I want us to see is..... God is a friend worth having.

I want you to see today....

The necessary ingredients for a relationship with God

The reasons we can have a relationship with God

What God has done to establish the relationship

The benefits of a relationship with God

Perhaps I should dangle a carrot to keep your attention...

THE BENEFITS OF A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

1. RELATIONSHIPS

All kinds of relationships.... marriage, friendships, family, can all be strengthened and put back together when we have a right relationship with God

Relationships are demanding and often difficult to maintain.

They call for patience, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Where do we get those things????? Galatians 5:22-23.... Fruit of the Spirit

Where do we get the Spirit..... relationship with God.

So that one of the big benefits of a relationship with God is improved relationships with others.

2.PURPOSE

Life without Christ is a life without purpose.

It may have a cause, but most just have an agenda... a list of events or activities that fill the hours of the day... but no purpose.

There is no "Big Picture" no over-arching goal or direction for the things we do.

Life is lived piece-meal.. .. helter-skelter.... a bunch of unrelated, unintentional acts.

What we need is a purpose... a larger goal that affects all we do and everything we do is working towards that goal.

The things we do will have meaning, we will know why we are doing them... they are accomplishing something and taking us some place.

With Christ, our lives come under the direction and guidance of the all-loving, all-knowing Holy Spirit. He always has our best interest in mind and constantly leads us with an eye on the big picture... the will of God.

Everything we do has purpose... becoming Christ-like.

FULFILLMENT

Having that purpose in life and seeing our progress and our change gives us great satisfaction and fulfillment.

Then we can understand what Paul meant when he said "It is not I that worketh but Christ working within me."

Seeing progress encourages us to go on further.

Even hard times do not diminish our joy because we begin to see as Paul did that "even this is being used of God to grow me"

The next two are very important

hundreds of thousands of women and children remain in abusive relationships because they lack these two.....

CONFIDENCE

1 John 4:18 says, "Perfect love casts our all fear."

When we have a relationship with Christ we have no need for...

fear of punishment because Christ already took that

fear of failure because "If God is for us, who can be against us?" fear of intimidation Christ is stronger than our enemies

fear ofloss the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills

fear of rejection even if all others do-- He will never leave us nor forsake us

Battered women and abused persons in general often remain in abusive relationships because they lack the confidence to break out... NEW!!!

SELF-ESTEEM

Very few people in this world see themselves as they really are... instead... they see themselves as they think significant others see them.

If those around us constantly put us down, constantly belittle us, constantly find fault with us... we will have low self esteem.

When we establish a relationship with Christ and when He comes to be a significant other to us, we will begin to see ourselves as he does..... His child, one He loves eternally, valuable

{sent His Son}, capable of great change, capable of great things.

We come to see ourselves a precious to Him.... of exceeding great value

In fact, we are going to close later by singing 448 and changing the words to "I am so precious to Him."